Author: Bill Tarling

“A new study in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the use of high-strength nicotine e-cigarettes can help adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders quit smoking. Some 40% of participants had stopped smoking traditional cigarettes by the end of 12 weeks. Researchers observed an overall, sustained 50% reduction in smoking or complete smoking abstinence in 92.5% of participants at the end of 12 weeks. Researchers also observed an overall 75% reduction in median daily cigarette consumption from 25 to 6, by the end of the 12 weeks. After six months, 24 weeks after the study began, 35% of participants had completely stopped smoking conventional tobacco cigarettes, while continuing to use e-cigarettes. Researchers here also measured a significant decrease in daily cigarette consumption was also confirmed at the end of 24 weeks. The study’s authors report that 57.5% of participants reduced their cigarette usage by over 50%.”

ARTICLE LINK:   Electronic cigarettes help smokers with schizophrenia quit

“Local governments may soon be able to decide whether cigarette smoking will be permitted at beaches and public parks within their jurisdiction. On Monday, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee advanced a bill (SB 334) that would empower municipalities to take lead on smoking regulations with a 5-0 vote. “This will allow us to get the bad butts off the beach and get the good butts on,” said Republican Sen. Joe Gruters, the bill sponsor. Notably, the proposal advanced with an amendment that would exempt cigar and pipe tobacco from regulation. Gruter’s proposal moves next to the Senate Rules Committee for its final committee stop. If signed into law, the bill would take effect July 1.“

NOTE: Vaping is included in the SB 334 wording: “Each announcement must include a statement to the effect that Florida is a clean indoor air state and that smoking and vaping are prohibited except as provided in this part.”

ARTICLE LINK: Bill to ban smoking at beaches, parks clears Senate committee

“The Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children (PACT) Act has forced many companies to discontinue U.S. online sales and even cease operations altogether. Among the most recent vape shops to announce the end of their business are Elevated Vaping in Houston, Texas, and the Vape Spot in Los Angeles, California. Even companies overseas reported supply chain disruptions as a result of the U.S. mail ban. “If the increase in shipping costs wasn’t enough, the bill also imposes huge paperwork burdens on small retailers and backs it up with threats of imprisonment for even innocent mistakes,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. “This is not a law designed to regulate the mail-order sale of vaping products to adults; it’s an attempt to eliminate it.”

ARTICLE LINK:   U.S. Mail Ban Forcing Vape Shops Out of Business

“The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has unveiled a landmark package of recommendations to government, aimed at maximizing the public health benefits of vaping and bolstering ambitions for a “Smokefree 2030.” The document, A Blueprint for Better Regulation, urges government to use its post-Brexit independence to become a world leader in harm reduction. The U.K.’s Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (TRPR) are currently being reviewed, with a crucial consultation due to close on March 19. The resulting decisions made by government are set to shape public health and smoking cessation policy for years to come. Former Health Minister Norman Lamb, also a former chair of Parliament’s science and technology committee, praised the recommendations.”

ARTICLE LINK:   U.K. Vaping Industry Proposes Regulatory Changes Ahead of Government Review

“New Zealand scientists are for the first time testing the 150 vaping products on the market, to check for nicotine levels and ethanol, and after illicit drugs were found in some liquids overseas. The study by ESR, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, will check the wide variety of vaping liquid products sold in New Zealand. Scientists are developing a testing methodology, and will analyse liquids for nicotine levels, illicit drugs, ethanol (alcohol), colours, endotoxins, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (a harmful chemical found in tobacco and tobacco smoke).”

ARTICLE LINK: ESR scientists to test vaping products for nicotine levels, alcohol and illegal drugs

“In a narrow 3-2 vote on Friday, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee advanced a bill, S.24, to ban the sale of flavored vaping and tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. Sens. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, and Joshua Terenzini, R-Rutland, opposed the ban. Cummings said she doesn’t have a problem banning flavored vape products, but opposes the prohibition on menthol, and is uneasy about prohibiting products because they have been marketed toward minority communities. Terenzini said he probably would have supported the bill if the menthol ban was stripped out. The bill could still change as it moves through other Senate panels in the coming weeks. Its next stop is the Senate Committee on Economic Development. “

ARTICLE LINK: Flavored tobacco ban, unemployment benefits, pot market meet legislative deadline

“Coming to light on 8 March, International Women’s Day, The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a document titled “Through A Gender Lens; Women and Tobacco in The Who European Region”. Veering between patronising and nonsensical, it adds nothing to the debate over tobacco harm reduction other than reaffirming the blinkered approach coming from. Page 9 reveals the bias inherent in the document as the pictures are supplied by The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the American organisation that works hand in hand with Bloomberg organisations to put over a grossly distorted version of vaping and tobacco harm reduction. On one hand the WHO celebrate a “feminist movement” that “has grown across the European Region”, while in the next breath it effectively portrays women as weak-minded individuals who are easily led into the danger of using nicotine. The initial comments on the dangers of smoking are clear enough, but the document slides into vaping as though there is no difference between it and the use of tobacco products.”

ARTICLE LINK:   WHO’s Patronising Women

“Congress wants to eliminate the ability for adults to receive e-cigarettes by mail, a measure that will reduce access to these life-saving options even after the lockdowns end. Study after study has shown that policies that make e-cigarettes more expensive can reduce e-cigarette use. But they also increase smoking. The same is true for convenience: The harder it is for smokers to access e-cigarettes, the less willing and able they’ll be to choose e-cigarettes over combustible cigarettes, which are available almost everywhere. The real goal is to hurt the legal vaping industry, which the vape mail ban will almost certainly do. It will also be a boon to the illegal vaping market, as well as the traditional cigarette business. By banning vape mail, Congress is not only kicking legal vapor businesses when they are down, forcing adults back to smoking tobacco, and forfeiting much-needed tax revenue; it is also making youth vaping more likely and more dangerous by encouraging an illicit vapor market and forcing consumers into it.”

ARTICLE LINK:   Don’t Ban E-Cigarette Delivery by Mail

“Politicians in 13 states are considering bans on flavored vaping products. But flavors are the very thing that allows smokers to quit. If these politicians had bothered to visit their local vape shop and talk to the people there, they would know this. The lawmakers are ignoring the overwhelming evidence that vaping is the best possible tool to help smokers quit smoking. While scientific evidence continues to mount in support of vaping, state legislatures across the United States are currently considering measures that would prohibit flavors. In Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Vermont, legislators have proposed bans on flavored vaping products. Science has proven, again and again, that flavored vaping products are essential to the process of smoking cessation. Lawmakers too often choose to disregard this proof and instead support policies that will keep people smoking traditional cigarettes. “

ARTICLE LINK:   States defy science and cost lives with Vape flavor bans

“New research looking at smoking cessation treatment by tobacco counsellors in Flanders has found that vaping produces “similar if not higher smoking cessation rates compared to those choosing other evidence-based smoking cessation aids.” The volume of supportive studies and the experience of British ex-smokers demonstrates how nonsensical the European Union is being to push to restrict access to products and flavours. The work by Karolien Adriaens, Eline Belmans, Dinska Van Gucht and Frank Baeyens is published this month in Harm Reduction Journal. The Flanders study looked at 296 participants, with 251 participants continuing to participate in the first or second follow-up assessment. They found that a third of the total group were verifiably abstinent of tobacco 7 months after quitting. This broke down as 40% of those who’d switched to vaping remaining smoke-free compared to just 23% of traditional NRT users.”

ARTICLE LINK:   More Proof of Ecig Efficacy